Chapter Summary?s of ?To Kill A Mockingbird? Chapter 1: Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, studied law in Montgomery while supporting his brother, John “Jack” Hale Finch, who was in medical school in Boston. His sister Alexandra is living at the Landing. Atticus began his law practice in Maycomb, the county seat of Maycomb County, where his office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a spittoon, and a checkerboard. His first case entailed his defense of two men who refused to plead guilty for second-degree murder. They instead pleaded not guilty for first-degree murder, and were hung, marking probably the beginning of my father’s profound distaste for criminal law. Her father is a peaceful man, while her family’s black cook, Calpurnia, is strict, but nice. Scout and Jem’s mother died of a heart attack when Scout was two, and only Jem has occasional memories for her. The real excitement begins with the first meeting between Scout, Jem, and “Dill”, a feisty, imaginative boy who is nearly seven but very small for his age. From Meridian, Mississippi, Dill will be spending the summer at the nearby house of Miss Rachel Haverford, his aunt.
He impresses the Finch children with his dramatic acting of the movie Dracula, from which Dill gets Scout and Jem?s friendship and respect. By late summer the children turn their thoughts toward the Radley place, a mysterious household on a curb beyond the Finch house which is said to have a mysterious man, by the name of Boo Radley, living in it. Though never seen by the children, he is rumored by popular superstition to be over six feet tall, with rotten yellow teeth, popping eyes and a drool, eating raw animals. He is often named as the source of strange evil. Mr. Radley has always only been seen only on his daily trip to collect groceries from 11:30am to 12:00pm, and the family worshipped in their own home on Sundays. Their youngest son, Arthur, become mixed with a gang of boys who were finally arrested and brought to court after driving an old car through the town square and locking Maycomb’s beadle in an outhouse. Though the other boys went to industrial school, Arthur, Boo, Radley’s family preferred to keep him hidden inside the home. After fifteen years of this invisibility, it was said that the thirty-three-year-old Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors.
The Essay on Scout And Jem Told Children Simply
'A child learns more from personal experience than by simply being told something.' Discuss this idea, with reference to 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. Children learn more from personal experience than by simply being told something. Whether it be pulling out the neighbors prize pansies or holding Freddie the fish out of the water for three minutes and seeing if he will survive, regardless of what ...
Refusing to permit his son to be deemed insane or charged with criminal behavior, Mr. Radley allowed Boo to be locked up in the courthouse basement. Boo is eventually brought back to the Radley home. After Mr. Radley’s death, his older brother Nathan arrived to continue keeping Boo inside and out of sight. Dill dares Jem to go inside the Radleys’ front gate. After three days of pondering, Jem’s fear of Boo subsides to his sense of honor when Dill changes his terms, daring Jem to only touch the house. Jem finally agrees to do this. He runs, touches the house, and the three scramble back to the Finches’ porch, where looking down the street to the Radley house Jem and Dill thought they saw an inside of a shutter movement, and the house was still. Chapter 2: It is now September, and Dill has returned to his family in Meridian, and Scout goes to school for the first time. She is excited about starting school at last, but her first day of first grade leaves her feeling quite differently. Her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is a 21-year-old teacher new to the Maycomb County schools?she herself is from the richer and more cultured North Alabama, and she doesn’t understand the ways of Maycomb yet.
Half of the students failed first grade the year before. When Miss Caroline puts the alphabet on the board and asks the class if they know it, Scout reads it through, then reads from her reader and from the local paper. Miss Caroline forbids Scout to let Atticus teach her to read anymore, as she claims that Scout is learning wrongly. Scout doesn’t remember learning how to read. When Miss Caroline forbids her to continue reading, she realizes how important it is to her. Jem tries to reassure Scout at recess, telling her that Miss Caroline is introducing a new teaching technique that he calls the Dewey Decimal System. Back in school, Scout gets bored and starts writing a letter to Dill, but is criticized again by her teacher for knowing how to write in script when she’s only supposed to print in first grade. Scout blames Calpurnia for teaching her how to write in script on rainy days. Lunchtime comes around and Miss Caroline asks everyone to show his or her lunch pails that aren?t going home to eat. One boy, Walter Cunningham, has no pail and refuses to accept Miss Caroline’s loan of a quarter to buy something with. Miss Caroline doesn’t understand, and a classmate asks Scout to help out.
The Essay on Miss Caroline From To Kill A Mockingbird
Miss Caroline is not only an inexperienced teacher, she is also a foreigner to Maycomb County, and her inexperience causes her to become defensive when she discovers that Scout is the only student in her class that can read and write in print, “ …and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stockmarket quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was ...
Scout explains that Walter is a Cunningham, but Miss Caroline doesn’t know what that means. Scout says that the Cunninghams don’t accept other people’s help, they just try to get by with what little they have. The Cunninghams are farmers who don’t have actual money now that the Depression is on. When Scout explains that Walter can’t pay back the lunch money Miss Caroline offered, the teacher taps Scout’s hand with a ruler and makes her stand in the corner of the room. The first half of the day ends and Scout sees Miss Caroline bury her head in her arms as the children leave the room, but she doesn’t feel sorry for her after her unfriendly treatment that morning. Chapter 3: Jem invites Walter Cunningham over for lunch when he finds out that the boy doesn’t have much food. Walter can?t decide at first but then accepts their offer. At the Finches’ house, Atticus and Walter discuss farming, and Scout is surprised by their adult speech. Walter asks for some molasses and proceeds to pour it all over his meat and vegetables. Scout rudely asks him what he’s doing and Calpurnia gives her a lecture in the kitchen about how to treat guests, even if they’re from a family like the Cunninghams.
Back at school, there’s a big scene when Miss Caroline screams upon seeing a cootie crawl off Burris Ewell?s. Their children come to school on the first day of the year and then are never seen again. Miss Caroline wants Burris to go home and take a bath, but he doesn’t leave the room, he lives for the rest of the year, yelling crude insults at her and making her cry. The children try to comfort her and so she reads them a story. Scout goes home feeling down and discouraged. After dinner she tells Atticus she doesn’t want to go back to school. Atticus asks her to understand the situation from Miss Caroline’s point of view, Miss Caroline can’t be expected to know what to do with her students when she doesn’t know anything about them yet. Scout doesn?t think its fair that Burris Ewell doesn?t have to go to school. As Atticus explains, the town authorities bend the law for the Ewells because they’ll never change their ways. Atticus teaches Scout made a compromise, if she goes to school, Atticus will let her keep reading with him at home. Scout agrees and Atticus reads to her and Jem from the papers. Chapter 4: School continues; the year goes by.
The Term Paper on Aunt Alexandra Scout Jem Atticus
CH. 1 Scout, the narrator, remembers the summer that her brother Jem broke his arm, and she looks back over the years to recall the incidents that led to that climactic event. Scout provides a brief introduction to the town of Maycomb, Alabama and its inhabitants, including her widowed father Atticus Finch, attorney and state legislator; Calpurnia, their "Negro" cook and housekeeper; and various ...
Scout doubts that the new educational system is really doing her any good?she finds school boring and wishes the teacher would allow her to read and write, rather than ask the children to do silly activities geared toward Group Dynamics and Good Citizenship. One afternoon as she runs past the Radley house she notices something in the knot-hole of one of the oak trees in the Radleys’ front yard. It turns out to be two pieces of chewing gum. Scout is careful but she eventually decides to chew them. Jem makes her spit it out. Later, toward the end of the school year, they find in the same place a little box with two-polished Indian-head pennies inside, these are good luck tokens. They aren’t sure whether these have been left for them, but decide to take them anyway. Dill comes to Maycomb, full of stories about train rides and his father, who he claims to have finally laid eyes upon. The three try to start a few games, but they quickly get bored. Jem pushes Scout inside an old tire, but it ends up in the Radleys’ yard. Terrified, Scout runs back, but Jem has to run into the yard and retrieve the tire. Dill thinks Boo Radley died and Jem says they stuffed his body up the chimney.
The Term Paper on Jem And Scout Atticus Dill Told
... until Atticus came home early and saw Jem with the scissors. Jem didn't think he knew, but Scout sensed that he did. Dill and Jem got ... Boo come out." Boo Radley, also known as Arthur Radley. Back before Jem and Scout were even born Arthur Radley and his family moved to ... didn't know how, plus there wasn't enough snow. They asked Miss Maudie, another of their neighbors, if they could have her ...
Scout thinks that maybe he’s still alive. They invent a new game about Boo Radley. Jem plays Boo, Dill plays Mr. Radley, and Scout plays Mrs. Radley. They polish it up over the summer into a little dramatic reenactment of all the gossip they’ve heard about Boo and his family, including a scene using Calpurnia’s scissors as a prop. One day Atticus catches them playing the game and asks them if it has anything to do with the Radleys. They say it doesn’t, and Atticus replies, “I hope it doesn’t.” Atticus’s sternness forces them to stop playing, and Scout is relieved because she’s worried for another reason: she thought she heard the sound of someone laughing inside the Radley house when her tire rolled into their yard. Chapter 5: Jem and Dill have become closer friends, and Scout, being a girl, finds herself often excluded from her play. Dill has in childish fashion decided to get engaged to Scout, but now he and Jem play together often and Scout find herself unwelcome. She often sits with their neighbor, the avid gardener Miss Maudie Atkinson, and watches the sun set on her front steps or partakes of Miss Maudie’s fine cake.
Miss Maudie is honest is her speech and her ways, with a witty tongue, and Scout considers her a trusted friend. Scout asks her one day about Boo Radley, and Miss Maudie says that he’s still alive, he just doesn’t like to come outside. She also says that most of the rumors about him aren’t true. Miss Maudie explains that the Radleys are foot-washing Baptists?they believe all pleasure is a sin against God, and stay inside most of the time reading the Bible. She says that Arthur was a nice boy when she used to know him. The next day Jem and Dill hatch a plan to go leave a note for Boo in the Radleys’ window, using a fishing line. The note will ask him to come out sometimes and tell them what he’s doing inside, and that they won’t hurt him and will buy him ice cream. Dill says he wants Boo to come out and sit with them for a while, as it might make the man feel better. Dill and Scout keep watch in case anyone comes along, and Jem tries to deliver the note with the fishing pole, but finds that it’s harder to maneuver than he expected. As he struggles, Atticus arrives and catches them all. He tells them to stop tormenting Boo, and lectures them about how Boo has a right to his privacy, and they shouldn’t go near the house unless they’re invited.
The Essay on Boo Radley Scout Jem Summer
... to act out the story of Boo Radley. Scout played Mrs. Radley, Jem-Boo Radley, and Dill played Mr. Radley. Making their scenes more complex everyday, the ... fence trying to sneak over to Boo's house. E. Summarization Atticus took on a case for a black man accused of ... from Miss Caroline, accidentally got her in trouble she beat him up. The other main character is Jem. Wanting to get Boo Radley ...
He accuses them of putting Boo’s life history on display for the edification of the neighborhood. Jem says that he didn’t say they were doing that, and thus inadvertently admits that they were doing just that. Atticus caught him with “the oldest lawyer’s trick on record.” Chapter 6: It is Dill’s last night in Maycomb for the summer. Jem and Scout get permission to go sit with him that evening. Dill wants to go for “a walk,” but it turns into something more: Jem and Dill want to sneak over to the Radleys’ and peek into one of their windows. Scout doesn’t want them to do it, but Jem accuses her of being girlish, an insult she can’t bear, and she goes along with it. They sneak under a wire fence and go through a gate. At the window, Scout and Jem hoist Dill up to peek in the window. Dill sees nothing, only curtains and a small faraway light. The boys want to try a back window instead, despite Scout’s pleas. As Jem is raising his head to look in, the shadow of a man appears and crosses over him. As soon as it’s gone, the three children run as fast as they can back home, but Jem loses his pants in the gate.
As they run, they hear a shotgun sound somewhere behind them. When they return, Mr. Radley is standing inside his gate, and Atticus is there with various neighbors. They found out that Mr. Radley was shooting at a “white Negro” in his backyard, and has another barrel waiting if he returns. Dill makes up a story about playing strip poker to explain Jem’s missing pants, and Jem says it was with matches rather than cards, which would be considered very bad. Dill says goodbye to them, and Jem and Scout go to bed. Jem decides to go back and get his pants late that night. Scout tries to persuade him that it would be better to get whipped by Atticus than to get shot and killed by Mr. Radley, but Jem insists?he says he’s never been whipped by Atticus and doesn’t want to be. Jem is gone for a little while, but he returns with the pants, trembling. Chapter 7: Jem is “moody and silent” after the pants incident. The new school year starts, and Scout finds it to be just as boring as first grade. She and Jem are walking home together one day when Jem says that he didn’t tell her that when he found his pants that night, they were all folded up, and the tears had been crudely sewn up, as if someone knew that he would be coming back for them.
The Essay on Mrs Dubose Scout Atticus Learns
... in Scout accompanying Jem to Mrs. Dubose's. First, Scout learns about courage from Atticus. One can see this when Atticus sends her and Jem to read to Mrs. Dubose as ... Through going with Jem each day to her house, Scout finally discovers how courageous Mrs. Dubose is. One can see this when Atticus says, ''I wanted ...
He finds this highly eerie. Then they find a ball of twine in the hiding place in the oak tree. They aren’t sure if it’s theirs or not, so they leave it for a few days. When it’s still there, they take it, and decide that anything left there is okay to take. Jem is excited about sixth grade, because they learn about ancient Egypt, and he tells Scout that school will get better for her. One day in October they find two little figures, a boy and a girl, carved artfully out of soap. Upon closer examination, they realize that they are images of themselves. They wonder who could have done it?maybe Mr. Avery, a neighbor who whittles wood. In a couple of weeks, they find a package of chewing gum, then an old medal for winning the spelling bee, then a broken pocket watch on a chain with an aluminum knife. Jem can’t get it to work, but they decide to write a letter thanking whoever gives them these gifts. They write a note of thanks and leave it in the oak tree. The next day, they are horrified to discover that someone has filled their hole up with cement. They ask Mr. Radley about it, which claims that the tree is dying and the cement will keep it alive. But Atticus, when asked, says that the tree looks very healthy.
Jem stands out on the porch for a long time, and when he comes inside, he looks like he has been crying. Chapter 8: winter comes to Maycomb and it’s unexpectedly harsh. Mr. Avery blames the children for causing the bad weather, saying that disobedient children make the seasons change. Mrs. Radley dies, and Atticus goes to the Radleys’ house, but upon questioning from Scout he sternly says that he did not see Boo there. Snow comes?the first snow Scout and Jem have ever seen. School gets canceled and Jem and Scout make a plump snowman looking like Mr. Avery using soil and snow collected from Miss Maudie’s yard. Atticus admires the snowman but suggests that they make it look a little less realistic. Jem gives it Miss Maudie’s hat and pruning shears. Miss Maudie laughs at the impersonation. It’s bitterly cold that night. Scout is awakened in the middle of the night by Atticus. Miss Maudie’s house is on fire. Three fire trucks are trying to help, but are hampered by the cold, and one of the hose bursts. Atticus makes the two children wait by the Radleys’ house, where they shiver and hope that the flames won’t come too near their own house.
Miss Maudie’s house collapses and her tin roof helps put out the flames. Miss Maudie will live at Miss Stephanie’s house for a while now. Back at home, Atticus notices that Scout has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Neither of the children knows where it came from. They realize that Boo Radley must have slipped it over her while they were engrossed by the fire?Mr. Radley, his brother, had been busy helping at Miss Maudie’s house, so it could only have been Boo. Miss Maudie is unexpectedly cheery about the fact that her house is gone. She says that she wanted a smaller house anyway, and now she’ll be able to have a bigger garden. The fire probably started because she kept a fire going that night to keep her potted plants warm. Chapter 9: A boy at school, Cecil Jacobs, teases Scout, saying that her father “defends niggers.” Scout fights him over it. Later she asks Atticus what it means, and he says he has decided to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who lives in a settlement behind the town dump. He says that there has been talk around town that he ought not to defend Tom. Scout asks why he’s still doing it, and Atticus responds that if he didn’t take the case, he wouldn’t be able to “hold up my head in town,” represent his county in the legislature, or even tell his children what to do.
He explains that every lawyer gets at least one case in a lifetime that affects them personally, and this one is his. He tells Scout to keep her cool no matter what anyone says, and fight with her head, not her hands. Scout asks if he’s going to win the case and Atticus says no, but “simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” He tells her that no matter what happens, the people of Maycomb are still their friends, and this is still their town. Back at school, Scout doesn’t fight. She keeps this up until Christmas, when they all go to stay with their Aunt Alexandra at Finch’s Landing. Their Uncle Jack comes to stay with them in Maycomb for a week, which Scout enjoys, because he has a good sense of humor, even though he’s a doctor. Scout has been trying out swear words on the theory that Atticus won’t make her go to school if he finds out she learned them there, but after dinner Uncle Jack tells her not to use them in his presence unless she’s in an extremely provoking situation. For Christmas, Jem and Scout both get air rifles. They go to Finch’s Landing, a large house with a special staircase leading to the rooms of Simon Finch’s four daughters that once allowed Finch to keep track of their comings and goings.
Scout hates going here, because her Aunt Alexandra always tells her that she should be more ladylike she should wear dresses and not pants, she should play with girls’ toys like tea sets and jewelry. She hurts Scout’s feeling and makes her sit at the little table in the dining room at dinner instead of the grown-ups’ table, where Jem and Francis are sitting?Francis is a grandson of Aunt Alexandra. Scout calls Francis “the most boring child I ever met,” and says that talking to him gives her the feeling of “settling slowly to the bottom of the ocean.” The only good thing about being at the Landing is Aunt Alexandra’s excellent cooking. After dinner, Francis and Scout are outside in the backyard. Francis says that Atticus is a “nigger-lover,” and that now Atticus will be the ruination of the family, who won’t even be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. Scout patiently awaits her chance, then punches him in the mouth. Francis screams and everyone comes outside. Francis says Scout called him a “whore-lady” and jumped on him, which Scout does not deny. Uncle Jack tells her not to use that language and pins her when she tries to run away. Scout says that she hates him. Atticus says it’s high time, so they headed home.
Back at home, Scout runs to her room to be alone. Uncle Jack comes upstairs to have a talk with her. Scout points out that he doesn’t understand children very well, since he had never heard her side of the story. Uncle Jack asks her for her side and Scout tells him what Francis said about Atticus. Uncle Jack is very concerned and wants to go talk with Alexandra right away, but Scout pleads with him not to tell Atticus, since she doesn’t want him to know that she broke her agreement not to fight anyone over the issue of Tom Robinson’s case. Scout overhears Uncle Jack and Atticus talking. Uncle Jack explains that he doesn’t want to have children because he doesn’t understand them well enough. Atticus muses that Scout needs to learn to keep her temper under control because in the next few months, there is going to be a lot in store for the family. Jack asks how bad it will be, and Atticus says that it couldn’t be worse?the case comes down to a black man’s word against the word of the Ewells, and the jury couldn’t possibly take Tom’s word over the word of white people. He just hopes that he can get his children through without having them catch Maycomb’s usual disease,” when people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro come up.” He hopes that Jem and Scout will look to him for their answers rather than to the townspeople.
Then he calls out Scout’s name and tells her to go to bed. She runs back to her room. Years later, the older narrator says, she will understand that Atticus wanted her to hear everything he said. Chapter 10: Scout doesn’t think her father can “do” anything?he doesn’t do hands-on physical work, he doesn’t play football, he’s much older than the parents of her peers so he’s too frail for most activity. He also wears glasses because he’s nearly blind in one eye. Instead of hunting, he sits and reads inside. Scout is ashamed of her father because it seems like he can’t do anything noteworthy. Scout has been dealing with a lot of not very complimentary talk at school about her father’s case, but she doesn’t fight anyone in public?only family like Francis. Atticus tells them they can shoot their air guns at tins cans and bluebirds but tells them that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie affirms this, saying “Your father’s right! Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Then one day a dog named Tim Johnson appears in the neighborhood. He has a strange appearance and walks slowly with a twitch. The children tell Calpurnia, who takes one look and then immediately calls Atticus to tell him that there’s a rabid dog in the neighborhood. Then she gets the town operator to call everyone in the neighborhood. She even runs over to the Radleys’ house to yell the warning to them. Atticus and the sheriff, Heck Tate, drive up, and the sheriff gives Atticus the gun. The dog is so close to the Radleys’ house that a stray bullet might go into the building. Atticus reluctantly takes up the gun and shoots the dog. The dog crumples into a heap. Jem is dumbstruck. Miss Maudie tells the children that their father used to be known as “One-Shot Finch,” the best dead shot in the county. She says he doesn’t shoot unless he has to, because he feels like, when with a gun, God gives him and unfair advantage over living beings. Scout wants to tell everyone in school, but Jem tells her not to, because he says that he wouldn’t care if Atticus “couldn’t do a blessed thing,” because Atticus is a gentleman.
Chapter 11: On their way to meet Atticus after work, Scout and Jem have to pass by the house of Mrs. Dubose, a very mean, sick old lady who sits on her front porch and yells at them as they pass by. The day after Jem’s twelfth birthday, they go to town to spend some of his money. On the way, Mrs. Dubose yells to Jem that he broke Miss Maudie’s grape arbor that morning, which is untrue, and yells at Scout for wearing overalls. Then she starts yelling at them about how Atticus is defending “niggers,” and says that Atticus is no better than “the trash he works for.” Jem tries to follow Atticus’s advice regarding Mrs. Dubose, just hold your head high and be a gentleman. In town, Jem gets a model steam engine and Scout gets a sparkly twirling baton. On the way home, Jem suddenly grabs Scout’s baton and cuts off all the tops of Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes. They return home and gloomily await Atticus’s return. Atticus comes home carrying green camellia buds and Scout’s broken baton. He makes Jem go to Mrs. Dubose’s house and apologize to her in person. Scout and Atticus discuss the necessity of keeping one’s head even when times get hard.
Atticus explains that he has to follow his conscience, no matter what anyone else in the town says. Jem returns from town. Atticus says that one can’t hold a sick old lady responsible for what she says. Jem says that Mrs. Dubose wants him to read out loud to her every afternoon for two hours for a full month. The two both go to read to Mrs. Dubose, whose house is dark and frightening, full of medical equipment. Mrs. Dubose is lying in bed, and she looks friendly but her face is old and hideous. Jem begins to read Ivanhoe and Mrs. Dubose snaps at him when he says any word incorrectly. As time passes, though, she stops speaking and her mouth opens and closes while her head sways from side to side. Jem asks her if she is all right, but she doesn’t reply. In a few minutes, an alarm clock sounds, and Mrs. Dubose’s assistant tells them to go home it’s time for Mrs. Dubose’s medicine. This happens every time they go to her house. Scout asks Atticus what a nigger-lover is, and he says that it’s just a meaningless term that “ignorant, trashy people use when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes above themselves.” He tells her that these words hurt the people who say them more than they hurt him.
The end of the month comes and Mrs. Dubose asks them to read to her for one more week. Now they read to her for two hours before the alarm sounds for them to leave?each day it seem that they stay there a little longer. When Mrs. Dubose makes remarks about Atticus’s case, Jem responds with detachment and keeps his anger hidden. Weeks after the last day of reading, Atticus gets a phone call and goes to Mrs. Dubose’s house for a long time. He comes back to announce that she is dead, and tells them that she was a morphine addict. Every day she waited a little longer while Jem read to her, until she broke herself from her addiction to morphine, which the doctors put her on as a pain-killer for her illness. Atticus wanted his children to see her an example of true courage?even though she knew she was going to die, Mrs. Dubose wanted to be free of her addiction. Atticus tells Jem that courage is about more than men with guns, it’s knowing you’re going to lose but sticking to your views and fighting anyway. Mrs. Dubose won, because he died beholden to nothing. Atticus calls her “the bravest woman I ever knew.” Chapter 12: Jem is growing up and tends to become moody and temperamental.
Scout tries to give him his space, looking forward to Dill coming in the summer. But Dill doesn’t come that summer?he writes to say that he has a new father and has to stay in Meridian. To make matters worse, Atticus has to leave for two weeks for an emergency session with the state legislature. Instead of letting the children go to church unattended that Sunday (last time they went by themselves, Scout locked one of the Sunday School girls in the furnace room telling her that she, like Shadrach, wouldn’t burn if she had enough faith), Calpurnia takes them to the First Purchase African M.E. church, an all-black congregation. Calpurnia takes special pains to make sure they are cleanly scrubbed and as perfectly dressed as possible on Sunday. At the church, a black woman named Lula tries to tell Calpurnia that white children don’t belong at the church. However, Calpurnia points out that it’s the same God, and the rest of the congregation welcomes the newcomers. Scout is surprised to hear Calpurnia speak in the same black dialect as the others, which she has never heard her use before. Inside the church, everything is much simpler than in the church she is used to, and there are no hymn-books.
Reverend Sykes announces that the collection taken up today will go to Helen, the wife of Tom Robinson. Calpurnia’s son Zeebo, the town’s trash collector, leads the congregation in hymns, singing each line and having the group repeat it back to him. Reverend Sykes gives a sermon, which seems similar to the sermons Scout is used to, except that he makes examples of particular people in the congregation to illustrate his points. After collection time, the Reverend counts the money collected and announces that they must raise ten dollars to give to Helen Robinson. He orders for the doors to be closed until everyone gives more. After the service, Scout asks Reverend Sykes why Helen needs the collection money when she can still go to work and take her children with her. Reverend Sykes explains that she may have trouble getting any work in the fields now. Scout asks Calpurnia about this, and Calpurnia say that it’s because Tom has been accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter. Mr. Ewell had Tom arrested and put in jail. Scout remembers that the Ewells are the ones who only come to school once a year, and are what Atticus calls “absolute trash.” Calpurnia won’t tell her what rape is.
Scout asks why they don’t have hymnbooks, and Calpurnia explains that only a few people at the church can read, she and Zeebo are among the few who can. Calpurnia used to work at the Landing and for Miss Maudie’s aunt, Miss Buford, who taught her to read. Jem asks Calpurnia why she doesn’t speak with proper grammar around black people, and Calpurnia explains that it would be out of place, and that she would look pretentious. The others don’t want to learn to speak the “right” way, she says, so she speaks their language. Scout asks if she can come over to Calpurnia’s house sometimes, and Calpurnia says yes. When they arrive home, Aunt Alexandra is sitting on their porch. Chapter 13: Aunt Alexandra has decided that it would be best for the family if she stays with them for a while which worries Scout but she knows there’s nothing to be done about it. Aunt Alexandra establishes herself in the neighborhood and continues to pester the children about what they should and shouldn’t do. She is old-fashioned and proper, and she often refers to the people of Maycomb in light of their family history. She seems to believe that behaviors and character traits are passed on from one generation to the next through heredity?one family might have a Gambling Streak, or a Mean Streak, or a Funny Streak.
She also judges families on the basis of how long they’ve been settled in the same place. Those who have stayed in the same places for many generations are deemed, ?Fine Folks?, where as Scout always thought that “Fine Folks” were those who did the best they could with the sense they had. In Aunt Alexandra’s eyes, the Ewells, who are very poor, are “Fine Folks,” because they have stayed on the same land by the town dump for three generations. Scout remembers how Maycomb was founded around an old tavern run by a man named Sinkfield. Its location was very far inland and away from the only form of transportation in that day?riverboats. Thus, families tended to intermarry a great deal, until most people looked fairly similar in the town. Newcomers arrived rarely and made little difference to the genetic and social mix. Most old people that know each other so well that every behavior is somewhat predictable and repetitive. Aunt Alexandra wants the children to know all about the Finch family and uphold its genteel heritage, but Atticus hasn’t introduced them to all of their cousins, and has told them stories about how their cousin Josh went insane at university.
Aunt Alexandra tries to pressure Atticus into telling the children why they should behave and “live up to your name” but he finds himself incapable of doing it. Scout says “it takes a woman to do that kind of work.” Chapter 14: Scout asks her father what rape is. He tells her it is “carnal knowledge of a female by force and without consent.” There is a family scene when Aunt Alexandra finds out that Scout and Jem went to the black church with Calpurnia. Aunt Alexandra tried to forbid Scout from going to visit Calpurnia in the future, and tries to make Atticus fire Calpurnia. Atticus refuses on the grounds that she’s done an excellent job of running the house and raising the children, and the children love her. Jem takes Scout aside and tries to tell her not to antagonize their aunt. He and Scout get into a fistfight, which Atticus breaks up, saying that Scout doesn’t have to obey Jem unless he can make her do so. That night Scout and Jem discover Dill hiding under Scout’s bed. He tells a long story about being locked and chained in a basement and escaping with a traveling animal show, then the real story about stealing money from his mother’s purse, and walking and hitching his way from the train station to the Finches’ house.
Scout gets him some cornbread to eat and notes mentally that he is now “home.” Jem says that Dill should let his mother know where he is, then he “broke the remaining code of our childhood” by calling for Atticus. Atticus is lenient, however, and calls Miss Rachel to ask if Dill can stay the night, and Scout gets him more food. Miss Rachel appears on the scene and reprimands Dill but allows him to stay. Dill and Jem sleep in Jem’s room, which adjoins Scout’s room. Late at night, Dill wakes Scout up and asks if he can sleep with her. He explains that his new father and his mother don’t seem interested in him, they are kind to him but they don’t need him around, they’d rather spend time alone together. Scout realizes how lucky she is to have a family that needs her. Then Dill suggests that they have a baby together, and even though he knows the real way that babies occur, he makes up a long dreamy story about a magic island where babies are collected like flowers. Scout wonders why Boo Radley doesn’t run away, and Dill thinks maybe Boo doesn’t have anywhere to run to. Chapter 15: Dill is allowed to stay for the summer.
Just a week later, events surrounding the trial begin to come to a head. First, a group of men pay a call on Atticus at his home. Jem and Scout watch from inside. The men make allusions to the fact that Tom will be moved to the Maycomb jail tomorrow (Sunday), because the trial will occur on Monday. They are concerned that the “Sarum bunch” will get up to some trouble, though Atticus thinks they won’t do anything (such as a lynching) on a Sunday night. Mr. Link Deas says that Atticus has everything to lose from the trial, but Atticus says that he wants the truth to come out. Jem gets concerned that the men outside mean Atticus some harm, but Atticus assures him later that those men are his friends?they’re not part of a gang or the Ku Klux Klan, who Atticus claims is gone and will never come back. Jem overhears Aunt Alexandra warning Atticus that he is bringing disgrace to the family name. Jem is still concerned for Atticus’s safety. On Sunday there are more people at church than ever in Scout’s memory, even Mr. Underwood from the town newspaper is there, and he almost never attends church. Later that afternoon, Atticus leaves the house in his car, carrying an electrical extension cord with a lightbulb at the end.
He refuses to allow Jem and Scout to come. But at around 10:00, Jem starts changing his clothes and tells Scout that he’s going downtown. Scout insists on coming, and they also pick up Dill on the way. They look for Atticus in his office, but finally find him sitting outside the county jail, with the lightbulb providing light for him to read his book. Jem feels reassured knowing where his father is, but as they’re about to go home, four old cars come into town. A group of men emerge, shadowy. Atticus informs them that the sheriff is nearby, but they counter that they called him into the woods on false pretenses. Atticus still seems unperturbed. Suddenly Scout runs out into the circle, but is taken aback when she realizes that these men are strangers to her. Atticus orders the children to go home, but Jem refuses. One man picks up Jem by the collar, and Scout kicks the man in the groin. Jem still won’t go. Scout becomes interested in the men, who smell of “whiskey and pigpen” and are dressed in heavy dark clothes despite the summer night. She recognizes Mr. Cunningham, the father of Walter from her class at school. She innocently begins to talk about how Walter is a good boy, and recounts how they invited him home for dinner one day, and asks Mr.
Cunningham to say hello to his son for her. Then she tries to engage him on the topic of his entailment, but notices that every one is staring at her. Mr. Cunningham bends down and says, “I’ll tell him you say hey, little lady.” Then the men decide to disperse, and go home in their cars. Mr. Underwood reveals himself in a nearby window with a gun, pointing out that he had them covered the whole time. The Finches and Dill go home. Chapter 16:Scout cries that night and Jem consoles her. Atticus says that Mr. Underwood despises black people even though he was willing to defend Atticus. Aunt Alexandra urges Atticus not to speak like that in front of Calpurnia, but Atticus protests as usual for fairness. Scout wonders out loud why Mr. Cunningham wanted to hurt Atticus when he usually is Atticus’s friend. Atticus explains that some people can forget that they are human beings when they become part of a mob. He says that it took an eight-year-old girl to bring them to their senses. Tom Robinson’s trial begins, and Scout, Jem, and Dill go to the courthouse where the locals are all out picnicking in the park. They notice Mr. Dolphus Raymond drinking liquor from a paper bag and sitting with the black people.
Jem explains that he married a black woman and that he has “mixed” children. Jem says that these children are “sad” because they don’t feel accepted by black people or by white people?though they can be accepted in the North. They see one of the mixed children and Scout thinks he looks black. She asks Jem how to determine whether someone is “mixed” or not and Jem says “You can’t tell by looking, that you have to know their history.” The Finch family is all white, but Jem considers that during Biblical times, it’s possible some of their ancestors were from Africa?however, that probably doesn’t count because it was so long ago. If anyone has a drop of black blood, they are considered all black by Maycomb society. In the packed courthouse, the children have trouble getting seats until Reverend Sykes helps them find seats upstairs in the balcony where black people sit. She observes Judge Taylor, who she considers to be a rather good, sensible judge Chapter 17: The trial begins with the testimony of the sheriff, Heck Tate. The prosecution’s attorney, Mr. Gilmer, asks him about the events surrounding Tom Robinson and Mr.
Ewell’s daughter, whose name is Mayella. Mr. Tate says that on November 21st, Mr. Ewell came to get him because “some nigger raped his girl.” He says that he found Mayella on the floor, all beaten up, and she said that Tom Robinson had taken advantage of her and beaten her. Atticus questions him next, asking whether anyone called a doctor. Mr. Tate says no. He asked where Mayella had been beaten, and Mr. Tate says, with some hesitation, that her right eye and entire right side of her face were bruised, and she had scratches all around her neck. Mr. Ewell is the next witness. Scout recollects mentally the way that the Ewells live, in a tiny hut made of planks and corrugated iron and flattened tin cans, surrounded by junk salvaged from the nearby dump. In the corner of the yard there are some geraniums planted in slop jars by Mayella. Scout concludes that the only thing separating Mr. Ewell from the black people around him, in terms of social standing, is that his skin is white. Mr. Ewell is surly and crass in the witness’s chair, but the judge manages to keep everything orderly. Mr. Gilmer asks Mr. Ewell for his version of the events. Mr. Ewell claims that he heard Mayella screaming when he was coming in from the woods with kindling, and he ran to the house to find Tom Robinson having sexual intercourse with her.
He uses the highly offensive term “ruttin,” which sets the court in a fervor. Mr. Ewell says that he ran to get the sheriff. He implores the judge to “clean up” the “nigger-nest” that are his neighbors, claiming that his neighborhood is getting dangerous. Atticus questions Mr. Ewell, asking whether a doctor was called, and Mr. Ewell again says that no doctor was called, saying that he has never called a doctor in his life and never thought of doing so. Atticus asks if Mr. Ewell remembers Mayella’s injuries as being the same as described by the sheriff. Mr. Ewell says that he does. Atticus asks if Mr. Ewell can write, and he says he can, so Atticus asks him to write his name on an envelope. In so doing, it is revealed that Mr. Ewell is left-handed. He also claims to be able to use both of his hands equally well Chapter 18: It’s now Mayella’s turn to be a witness. She is very distraught and cries in the witness stand, saying that she is afraid of Atticus. She finally tells Mr. Gilmer that her father asked her to chop up an old chiffarobe (chest of drawers) for kindling, but she didn’t feel strong enough. When Tom Robinson came along, she asked him to do it in return for a nickel.
As she went inside for the money, he followed her, got her to the floor, and took advantage of her while she screamed and tried to fight back. Then her father arrived and Tom ran away. Atticus has his turn to question Mayella, but first he asks her some background questions to show the jury what kind of family she comes from. She is nineteen and her family receives relief checks, but there isn’t enough food to go around; her father seems to be a drunkard; Mayella went to school for a few years but none of her eight siblings go; their mother is dead; Mayella doesn’t seem to have any friends. Atticus asks if Mr. Ewell is a loving father, and with hesitation, Mayella says that he is “tolerable” except when he is drinking. However, she insists that he never lays a hand on her or beats her. Atticus asks if this was the first time Tom Robinson has been invited into her house, and she jumps a little before she says that it was the first time. He asks Mayella if she remembers being beaten in the face, and Mayella first says no, but then yes. Atticus asks her to identify the man who raped her, and Mayella points to Tom, who is asked to stand up by Atticus. Everyone notices that Tom’s left arm is twelve inches shorter than his right, due to an accident in a cotton gin.
Atticus asks for more details about the struggle, then he asks many questions which Mayella doesn’t answer. Why didn’t the other children hear her screaming? Where were they? Why didn’t they come running? Did she start screaming when she saw her father in the window? Did she get beaten up by her father, and not Tom Robinson? Mayella just says that she was taken advantage of, and if the upper class gentlemen won’t prosecute Tom, they are cowards. Atticus seems to find something involving his interview with her distasteful. The court rests for ten minutes but no one leaves the courthouse Chapter 19: Tom goes to the witness stand to present his testimony. As he tries futilely to put his hand upon the Bible, it becomes evident that his left arm is entirely non-functional, and slips off lifelessly. Atticus questions him, first asking whether Tom had ever been convicted of a crime before. Tom explains that he was once convicted for fighting because he could not pay the fine that would have released him. Tom gives his account of the incident with the Ewells. He says that he passes by the Ewells’ house every day in order to get to work at Mr. Link Deas’s farm, where Tom picks cotton and does other farm work.
One day last spring, Mayella did ask him to chop up an old chiffarobe with a hatchet, but that was long before the November day in question. After that, Mayella often asked him to help her with odd jobs around the house as he passed by. She offered him a nickel for doing it the first time, but he refused, knowing that the family had no money. He said he helped her out because she didn’t seem to have anyone else to help her, and he never went onto the Ewell property without being invited. Scout thinks about how lonely Mayella is?she’s so poor that white people won’t befriend her, but black people will avoid her because she’s white. Atticus asks about the events on November 21st. Tom says that he passed the Ewells’ house as usual, and everything seemed very quiet. Mayella asked him to come inside and fix a broken door, but he came inside and said that the door didn’t look broken. Then Mayella shut the door behind him and said that she has sent the children away to get ice cream, having saved enough for each child to have a nickel. Tom starts to leave, but she asks him to take a box down for her on top of another chiffarobe. As he reached, she grabbed him around his legs.
Tom was so startled he overturned a chair. Next she hugged him round the waist and kissed his cheek, saying that “she never kissed a grown man before an’ she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her pap do to her don’t count.” Mayella asks him to kiss her back, and Tom asks her to let him out of the house. However, her back is to the door, and he doesn’t want to force her to move?as a black man, if he lays a hand on her he could later be killed. Then Mr. Ewell arrives, calling his daughter a “goddamn whore,” and telling her he will kill him. Tom runs away in fear. It’s now Mr. Gilmer’s turn to question Tom, which he does somewhat aggressively, using the term “boy” to address him. He tries to get at Tom’s motivations for helping Mayella, insinuating that he must have had ulterior motives for helping her. Tom finally says he just tried to help because he felt sorry for her, which stirs up the audience considerably. Mr. Gilmer asks whether Tom thinks Mayella was lying about asking him to chop up the chiffarobe in November?Tom avoids a potential trap by saying he thinks Mayella must be “mistaken in her mind” about this and everything else.
Mr. Gilmer asks why he ran if he had a clear conscience, and Tom said he was afraid of being tried in court, not for what he did, but for what he didn’t do. At this point, Dill starts to cry, and Scout takes him outside the courthouse. He says he can’t bear to watch Mr. Gilmer behaving so disrespectfully toward Tom. Scout says that all lawyers do that and Mr. Gilmer didn’t even seem to be trying as usual today. Dill points out that Atticus isn’t like that. A sympathetic voice behind them agrees that it makes him sick too?they turn to see Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Chapter 20: Mr. Dolphus Raymond offers Dill his drink, and they discover that he is only drinking Coca-Cola. Mr. Raymond explains that he feel he has to give the population some reason for his odd behavior (being friendly toward black people).
He says that it’s easier for people to handle strangeness when they have a reason to explain it?thus he pretends to be a drunkard. He says he thinks that children like Dill haven’t lost the instinct that tells them that it’s wrong to for white people to “give hell” to black people without consideration for their basic humanity. Scout and Dill return to the courtroom, where Atticus is beginning his speech to the jury. Atticus explains that the case is very simple, because there is no medical evidence and very questionable testimony to prove Tom’s guilt. Atticus explains that Mayella has “broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society” by attempting to seduce a black man. He acknowledges her poverty and ignorance, but says “I cannot pity her: she is white.” He explains that Mayella followed her desires even though she was aware of the social taboos against her actions. Having broken one of society’s strictest codes, she chose to “put the evidence of her offense”?Tom Robinson?away from her by testifying against him. Atticus accuses Mayella of trying to rid herself of the source of her own guilt. Atticus suggests that Mr.
Ewell beat his own daughter, as shown by Mayella’s bruising on her right side: Mr. Ewell leads predominately with his left, while Tom can’t punch with his left hand at all. Atticus points out that the case comes down to the word of a black man against the word of the white people, and that the Ewells’ case depends upon the jury’s assumption that “all black men lie.” Atticus reminds everyone that there are honest and dishonest black people just as there are honest and dishonest white people. He tells the jury that in a court of law, “all men are created equal.” A court is, however, no better than the members of its jury, and he urges the jury to do their duty. His speech is over, and suddenly Calpurnia is seen moving toward the front of the court. Chapter 21: Calpurnia arrives with a note for Atticus from Aunt Alexandra, who is concerned that the children have been gone all day. Atticus allows the children to return to hear the jury’s verdict after dinner. They return home, where Aunt Alexandra is saddened to hear they the three, particularly Scout, were at the courthouse, and they eat, then go back to the court, where the jury is still discussing.
The courtroom is packed but everyone is silent and still, and Scout feels the sensation of chilliness in the room. Finally the jury returns and Judge Taylor polls the jury. Every jury member declares Tom guilty. Atticus whispers something to Tom, then exits the courtroom. All the black people in the balcony rise to their feet to honor him. Chapter 22: Jem is crying and angry?he expected that the case was clearly in Tom’s favor. Atticus is exhausted and when Jem asks him how the jury could have done it he responds, “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it?seems like only children weep.” The next morning, however, he explains that there’s a good possibility for the case to be appealed in a higher court. Calpurnia reveals that the black community has left Atticus all sorts of appreciative gifts chickens and bread and produce. Atticus’s eyes fill with tears; he says he’s very grateful but tells Calpurnia that they shouldn’t do more when times are so hard. Dill comes by for breakfast and tells them that Miss Rachel thinks, “if a man like Atticus Finch wants to butt his head against a stone wall it’s his head.” The children go outside and Miss Maudie saves them from Miss Stephanie’s nosy gossip by inviting them over for cake.
Miss Maudie says that Atticus is someone who does other people’s unpleasant jobs for them. Jem is discouraged and disappointed with the people of Maycomb, who he formerly thought were “the best people in the world.” He thinks that no one but Atticus worked on Tom’s behalf, but Miss Maudie points out that many people helped, including the Mr. Tate the sheriff, the black community, and especially Mr. Taylor the judge, who offered Atticus the case in the first place. Miss Maudie says that even though she knew Atticus couldn’t win, he did manage to keep the jury out in discussion for longer than anyone else could. She says, “we’re making a step it’s just a baby step, but it’s a step.” As they leave, Dill says he wants to be a clown when he grows up, because “there’s ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I’m gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.” They see Mr. Avery, Miss Stephanie, and Miss Rachel discussing something with animation in the street: Mr. Ewell saw Atticus by the post office, spat in his face, and told him that “he’d get him if it took the rest of his life.” Chapter 23: Atticus is unconcerned about Mr.
Ewell’s threat, and tells his worried children that Mr. Ewell, who has been publicly discredited by the trial, just needs to feel like he is retaliating against someone, and better to have it be Atticus than the Ewell children. Tom is being held on a prison farm, and cannot be visited by his wife and children. Atticus thinks there’s a good chance he’ll be spared execution by having his sentence commuted by the governor. Atticus comments that too many people are sent to death based upon purely circumstantial evidence. Jem thinks that juries should be done away with, because they can’t make reasonable decisions. Atticus responds that men don’t behave rationally in some situations, and will always take a white man’s word over a black man’s. Atticus tells Jem that any white man who cheats a black man is trash. Jem and Atticus talk about what keeps people off of juries. Women can’t serve on juries in Alabama, and many people don’t want to get involved in court cases because their livelihood depends in some way upon maintaining good favor with both parties involved in a case. Jem thinks that the jury decided quickly, but Atticus reminds him that it took a few hours, which is much longer than usual, typically a case like Tom’s would be settled in a matter of minutes.
Atticus sees this as a sign of the beginnings of change for the better. Also, the one-jury member who wanted to defend Tom’s innocence was a Cunningham. Atticus thinks that all Cunninghams will stand solidly behind anyone who wins their respect, without fail?and the incident at the jailhouse won the Finches great respect. Scout wants to invite Walter Cunningham over for lunch more often, but Aunt Alexandra puts her foot down, saying that the Cunninghams aren’t the right sort of people for Scout to spend time with. She can be gracious to him and polite, but can’t invite him over because “he is trash.” Scout is upset about this and Jem tries to comfort her by explaining that Aunt Alexandra is just trying to make her into “a lady.” He says that there are four different kind of people is Maycomb county, “ordinary” people like themselves, then there is people like the Cunninghams in the woods, people like the Ewells by the dump, and black people. Each class looks down upon and despises the class below it. The two try to resolve exactly what separates and distinguishes the categories of white people. Background doesn’t seem to matter, because all the families are equally old.
Jem thinks it has to do with how long the family has been literate. Scout thinks, “there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” Jem says he used to think so as well, but he doesn’t understand why they despise one another if that’s the case. He adds that maybe Boo Radley stays inside because he wants to. Chapter 24: Aunt Alexandra has ladies over for a meeting of the Missionary Society of Maycomb. Scout is in attendance in order for her to learn to be a lady. The women discuss the plight of the Mruna people, a non-Christian group who are said to live in squalor and are being converted thanks to the efforts of a missionary named J. Grimes Everett. Scout doesn’t enjoy being around women but does her best to take part. The discussion moves toward the topic of Tom’s wife, Helen?apparently the black cooks and field hands in town were discontented during the week after the trial. One of the ladies comments on how much she dislikes a “sulky darky,” and says that when her black female servant complains about something, she reminds her that Jesus never complained. Another lady says that no amount of education will ever make “Christians” out of black people, and says “there’s no lady safe in her bed these nights.” Miss Maudie tersely shows her differing opinion on this topic.
Aunt Alexandra magically smoothes everything over in the discussion. Another lady says that Northerners are hypocrites who claim to give blacks equal standing but actually don’t mix socially with them, whereas in the South people are very up-front about their lack of desire to share the same lifestyle. Scout remembers that Calpurnia told Atticus that the day Tom went to prison he lost hope. Atticus couldn’t promise Tom an acquittal so he didn’t try to reassure Tom by giving him potentially false hope. Suddenly Atticus comes inside and requests Aunt Alexandra’s presence in the kitchen: he gives her the news that Tom tried to escape from the prison and was shot to death by the prison guards. They tried to tell him to stop and fired warning shots, but he would not listen and kept running. Atticus needs Calpurnia to go with him to Tom’s wife to give the news. The two of them go, leaving Aunt Alexandra to tell Miss Maudie in the kitchen that she’s concerned about Atticus. The trial has taken a lot out of him and it seems to be unending. Miss Maudie thinks that the town has paid Atticus a high tribute by trusting him to do right and uphold justice.
These people are the small handful who know that blacks should be given justice, and who have “background.” The two women then join the other women effortlessly, and for the first time Scout feels inclined to be ladylike, thinking that “if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.”. Chapter 25: Jem and Dill were out swimming on the day that Atticus and Calpurnia went to see Tom’s wife, and they got a ride with them. Dill said that when Tom’s wife saw the two of them, she seemed to faint, falling to the ground in a heap. Scout is remembering this week later, after Dill has gone home to Meridian. Tom’s death was only news in Maycomb for two days?it was regarded as “typical” in the sense that black men are thought to typically run away without having any plan, as if it reflects badly upon his character. Scout reflects that “in the secret courts of men’s hearts” nothing Atticus could have said could have freed Tom. Upon hearing the news, Mr. Ewell is rumored to have said “one down and about two more to go,” but Jem tells Scout that Mr. Ewell won’t really take action on his threats.
Chapter 26: School is in session again, and Scout has lost her fear of the Radley place?every now and then she thinks about what it would be like to see Boo one day sitting on the porch, and greet him as if they spoke to each other every day. School is hard for the Finch children: their peers are generally somewhat cold toward them, as if their parents had instructed them to be civil but not outwardly friendly. One-day Scout’s class gets into a discussion about Hitler and the persecution of the Jews. Her teacher, Miss Gates, speaks at length about how the German dictatorship allows for the Jews to be persecuted by a prejudiced leader, but she claims that in America, “we don’t believe in persecuting anybody.” Scout tells Jem that she is confused because on the day of the trial, she heard Miss Gates say that she thought it was “time somebody taught them a lesson, they though they was getting’ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us.” Jem is furious and doesn’t want to discuss the events surrounding Tom’s trial at all. Atticus assures Scout that Jem just needs some time to think about things, and then he’ll be himself again.
Chapter 27: Scout relates a few events. Mr. Ewell holds down a job for a few days, he is fired from the WPA (Work Projects Administration) for laziness. One night Judge Taylor finds the strange shadow of a prowler in his house. Helen Robinson has been working on the property of Mr. Link Deas, but walks nearly a mile out of her way in order to avoid walking past the Ewell’s house, because they “chunk” at her when she passes by. When Mr. Link finds out, he approaches the Ewell house and yells to them, warning them not to bother Helen, or else he’ll have them put in jail. The next day, Mr. Ewell follows Helen to work, “crooning foul words” the entire way, but Mr. Link again threatens him with jail and he stops this behavior. Aunt Alexandra thinks that these events bode poorly. It’s nearly Halloween, and Mrs. Grace Merriweather writes a pageant for Maycomb people to perform in a pageant about the history of the count. She wants children to play the parts of Maycomb’s agricultural products. Scout is going to play the part of the pork. She will wear a large costume made of chicken wire and wrapped around with brown cloth, which she puts over her head so it comes to just above her knees.
She can’t put it on or take it off without someone else’s help, as it pins her arms down, and she can’t see well through the eyeholes. Jem takes her to the play because everyone else is tying to avoid having to go to it. Chapter 28: Jem and Scout walk past the Radley house on the way to the school, where the pageant will be held, along with a country fair. It’s very dark, and they can barely see anything. They are scared by the sudden appearance of the boy Cecil Jacobs, who runs out to scare them. Cecil and Scout entertain themselves at the fair until the pageant begins. Scout misses her cue during the pageant because she falls asleep listening to Mrs. Merriweather’s dull history. However, she comes on for the last song. She is very embarrassed, and wants to keep her costume on for the walk home. The walk back will be very dark, and near the school, Scout remembers that she forgot her shoes inside. She is thinking of returning to get them, when Jem thinks that he hears something, which seems to make a noise when they walk and stop when they stop. Scout heard it too, but thinks that maybe it just Cecil again. They call out taunts to Cecil in order to get a response, but there is only silence.
Jem thinks maybe Scout should take off her costume, but she doesn’t have any clothes underneath, and can’t get her dress on in the dark. They are almost home, near the dark shadow of the tree by the Radleys’ house, and are trying to walk faster. It sounds like the person behind them is wearing thick cotton pants. The next time they stop walking, the footsteps behind them suddenly quicken into a run. Jem yells to Scout to run, but her costume throws her off balance. Something is crushed against her and she hears metal ripping. Jem’s hand tries to pull her, but she is tangled up in her costume. There is a crunching sound and Jem screams. The man who they are struggling with grabs Scout and begins to strangle her, when suddenly he is jerked backwards and thrown to the ground. Scout thinks Jem must have saved her, but she still can’t see anything. She hears the sound of someone breathing heavily and walking toward the tree to lean on, and she reaches out with her toes to find a person on the ground with stubble and the smell of stale whiskey. She makes her way in the direction of the road, and in the street light she sees a man carrying Jem, whose arm is hanging down oddly. Scout comes home and the doctor and sheriff are summoned. Jem is unconscious and has a broken arm. Scout checks on him, noting the man who carried him sitting quietly in the corner, who she assumes is a countryman she doesn’t know who happened to hear the fight and come running. The sheriff investigates outside and comes back to report that Mr. Ewell is lying outside dead with a kitchen knife in his ribs. Chapter 29: Scout tells the story of what happened to Atticus, the sheriff, and everyone else assembled. Mr. Tate notes the mark that Mr. Ewell’s knife made in Scout’s costume, and points out that Mr. Ewell meant to seriously harm or kill the children. When Scout points out the man who carried Jem, she finally takes a good look at him. He is very, very pale, with thin cheeks and feathery hair, and seems somewhat tense and nervous. Se suddenly recognizes him as Boo Radley and says hello to him. Chapter 30: The doctor returns and everyone moves to the back porch, where Scout finds herself assisting Boo into a rocking chair, feeling her odd fantasy about finding him sitting on the porch one day to be coming true. The others are discussing who killed Mr. Ewell. Atticus thinks that Jem must have done it, and he doesn’t want it to be hushed up. However, the sheriff insists continually that Mr. Ewell fell onto his knife and killed himself, which irritates Atticus, who wants Jem to be treated as fairly as anyone else and not have exceptions made. After much arguing, finally the sheriff yells out that he’s not trying to protect Jem (he is trying to protect Boo).
The sheriff urges Atticus, this once, to accept the situation even if it’s not perfectly just according to law: Mr. Ewell was responsible for Tom’s death, and the sheriff urges Atticus to “let the dead bury the dead.” He says that it would be a sin to drag shy Boo Radley out into the limelight, and declares officially that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife. Atticus asks Scout if she understands, and she says that she does, and that having it another way would be like shooting a mockingbird. Atticus thanks Boo for the lives of the children. Chapter 31: Scout asks Boo if he’d like to say good night to Jem. Boo doesn’t say anything, he just nods when she asks if he’d like to do so. Scout gently strokes Jem?s hair, and invites Boo to do so too. Then she feels that he wants to leave, so she leads him to the porch, where he asks her in a near-whisper, “Will you take me home?” She leads him home and he goes inside his house and shuts the door. After this Scout never saw Arthur again. Scout remembered the years that had went by and how Boo watched over them. The children he calls his own, Scout and Jem. They had never imagined that someone behind all the scary stories could be so nice. Back home, Scout and Atticus are sitting together while Atticus begins to read her scary children?s book. Scout says she wasn’t scared by what went on tonight, saying that, “Nothing is really scary, except in books.” She was talking about Boo Radley, how he was thought to be so mean and scary, but ended up really nice.
